Since Glen Mason turned the Gophers into his version of Running Back U, their offensive identity has been a moving target. Pro style. Spread. Hybrid. In 2008, Tim Brewster even changed the offense right before a bowl game.

The only real consistency was Minnesota’s inefficiency.

Not any longer.

The Gophers are essentially running the same offense for a second straight year and figure to do the same as long as Jerry Kill is here. That is the advantage of hiring an established head coach with a stable staff after a predecessor who was learning — and replacing assistants and systems — on the fly.

So whether the Gophers put up big numbers or go scoreless in the season opener Thursday, Aug. 30, at UNLV, the philosophy won’t change. There might be some tweaking depending on personnel, but it will be a multiple formation offense, a variation on the spread, same as Kill ran at Northern Illinois and his other stops.

“I think that’s been probably the most critical thing for us,” Kill said. “The kids are hearing the same coaches, same thing for the second year in a row. They haven’t had that stability at the University of Minnesota in a long, long time.”

Seniors MarQueis Gray and Brandon Green are the most experienced players on offense. But each played in three offenses in three years.

Gray played in a hybrid (pro style/spread) offense as a freshman in 2009, the pro style offense (as a wide receiver/backup quarterback) in 2010 and in Kill’s offense last year. Green, a wide receiver who redshirted in 2010, also played in the spread in 2008 — until the bowl game, when the Gophers ditched the four- and five-receiver sets and switched to a formation featuring two tight ends and two running backs.

“It was great during the offseason because now I can just work on my craft,” Green said, “not having to worry about learning a new system, learning new formations and plays. It gave me an opportunity to go out and work on the details of what I need to do to master my routes.”

Having the same playbook allowed Gray to build on his knowledge of the offense and spend more time teaching his young receivers the plays this offseason.

“I’m not trying to do too much (anymore by) taking off running,” he said. “I want to just sit back there and find the open guys.”

Offensive coordinator Matt Limegrover expects Gray to have more command of the offense in his second year as the starter. They are limiting the checks Gray can make at the line of scrimmage. The Gophers also cut back on some motion and movement on the line and in the backfield they did last year, making it simpler.

“If a kid like MarQueis isn’t comfortable when he’s in the huddle, it doesn’t do you any good to have him back there in the kind of offense we run,” Limegrover said. “That’s why we’ve done a lot of things we have. If, as we go along, if Max Shortell becomes our quarterback or Philip (Nelson), there’s always things you tweak. But we like how we’ve built a foundation that we can build off of.”

Brewster had three offensive coordinators (Mike Dunbar, Jedd Fisch and Jeff Horton) and two offensive line coaches (Phil Meyer and Tim Davis) in four seasons.

“Having the same coaches and offense just keeps us having a lot more trust within the system,” junior tackle Ed Olson said. “Rather than changing up the schemes and the names of the blocks and everything, we have the same thing in the offseason.”

Brewster came in with a spread system to attract recruits and then tried changing systems to adapt to personnel. Nothing worked. Kill is looking for players who can run his offense and working with those who were already here.

Last year, the Gophers fell off from the previous season. They dropped from an average of 361 total yards per game in 2010 to 310 in Kill’s first season. That was their second-lowest average since 1991.

“We’re going to be a lot more explosive,” Limegrover said. “We’ve added some pieces. But I just think everybody is feeling better about what we’re doing.”

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